1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector and, more specifically, to a connector having a mechanism for mounting the connector onto a mounting panel and for locking the connector in its mounted state.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of a conventional connector with a lock onto a panel is shown in FIG. 7, together with a mounting panel. In this example, a connector 11 with a lock onto a panel has a housing 12, and a wall 13 of the housing 12 on which are provided a pair of sliding rails 14 as well as a flexible engagement arm 15 being cantilevered by the wall 13 at an intermediate position between the rails 14 and projecting therefrom. An engagement projection 16 is formed on the surface of the flexible engagement arm 15, the projection 16 having an upper slope surface 16a retracting upward, and a normal stopper surface 16b which is normal to the surface of the arm 15 and continues from the slope surface 16a.
On the other hand, a mounting panel 17 has a pair of guide rails 18 corresponding to the sliding rails 14 of the connector 11, a guide 19, and an engagement projection 20 provided at an intermediate position between the guide rails 18 and engageable with the engagement projection 16.
When the sliding rails 14 of the connector 11 are slidingly fit into the gaps between the guide rails 18 and the guide 19 of the mounting panel 17, the engagement projection 16 of the flexible engagement arm 15 is brought into engagement with the engagement projection 20 of the panel 17 in the manner shown in FIG. 8. Specifically, the upper slope surface 16a of the engagement projection 16 abuts on the engagement projection 20, thereby causing the arm 15 to be deformed toward the wall 13 of the housing 12 until the projection 16 clears the projection 20. Upon clearing, the arm 15 recovers its original position by virtue of its resilience, whereby the normal stopper surface 16b is brought into and kept in contact with a surface of the projection 20.
However, the conventional connector 11 with the lock onto the panel has the following drawback. Since the distance L through which the flexible engagement arm 15 is allowed to deform must be provided in the direction normal to the wall 13 of the connector housing 12, it is inevitably required that the portion P' at which the connector 11 is locked onto the panel 17 should project from the housing 12 by a large dimension. This requirement makes the entire connector 11 large-sized.